Post 11

 I found chapter 11 to be thought provoking. I had never before thought of non-native varieties of English. The main part that stuck with me is that English does not have a home. It is an international language and therefore nobody can claim it as theirs. This means that different dialects are more than the first couple I think of; Boston, Southern, and West coast. Other countries have their own dialect of English and though it may sound improper to us, it is widely used and accepted in their society. Another part that caught my attention while reading was when it said that the people who standardize the language are the ones who control the social, political, and cultural power centers within a nation. This is true because the people attempting to standardize a language are the ones who feel that it is because the way they speak is superior based on their education of the knowledge. Truth be told, these people are trying to put a label on something that does not need one. There are a variety of Englishes spoken in and outside the United States. We need to take into account the influence of all these dialects rather than focus on standardizing the language. On a similar note, this chapter also gives two examples of countries which use their own English dialect. I compared the Indian English to my learning of Spanish. I think we put a big focus on listening to native speakers and practicing speaking with natives in order to become fluent. This is not the case for Indian English. They have native Indian teachers teaching with textbooks written by native Indian speakers. This is not necessarily the best way I would want to learn a language, but since Indian English is going to be what is spoken in their country for business and whatnot, why should they learn academic English?